>> every vote is critical right now, every vote on the race to 270 electoral votes so important. about to see more states close at the top of the hour. seconds away from now. and get ready for a projection. cnn can make a projection. mitt romney will carry the state of utah. not a big surprise. six electoral votes at stake. utah, one of the most republican states out there mitt romney will carry utah. with utah right now, we can make that projection, let's see where the road to 270 stands right now. we have 158 -- 158 for romney. 143 for obama. we can't make projections in three states where the polling just closed. in iowa, no projection. in montana no, projection and nevada, no projection, iowa, nevada, always considered

battleground states in this race for the white house. so no projections right now, we can share with you as we wait for more real votes to come in, our exit polls, they are -- we can show you what they are revealing. i want to caution everyone, these are estimates based on a sampling of voters as they left select polling stations. here are the exit poll results. barack obama, 52% to mitt romney's 46%, an exit poll estimate of what we saw today. in montana, look at this, the estimate, mitt romney 53% to barack obama's 43% in montana. in nevada, the president slightly ahead, in the exit poll that we conducted. 51% for the president to 45% for mitt romney in nevada. those are the exit poll results. remember, these are estimates that reflect the votes of the people we interviewed in select

polling places and early voters by the way, we interviewed by phone. they may not necessarily reflect the actual outcome in a particular state, once we get the final vote tally. let's go to john king right now. we're watching all of the states. this is the national vote right now. what we're seeing, 50% to 48%. national vote is nice. what's important are the battleground. >> 270 is the vote that really counts. may be a debate tomorrow, one candidate wins the popular vote and somebody else wins the electoral college. this is the state we're watching most closely. pivotal. 29 electoral votes, almost impossible to show you a scenario, to get to mitt romney to 270 without florida. 89% of the vote counted. 40,000 votes, shy of that, separating two candidates. the question? what's out? what's out? one rural county up here. governor romney will win this

county, but tiny, santa rosa county, less than 1% of the state population. let's move in to some of the other conservative counties. governor romney, a few votes there. and i'm clicking around on purpose to show you a lot of the conservative vote in. 100% here, 100% here, come down, randomly hitting the more conservative counties. the issue for romney, what's left? can he make up the margin? or can the president pad? down here, very significant. only 53% of the vote in in miami-dade counties. look at that. president, if you project this, it keeps going, most reliably democratic states in the county right here. 84% here. more votes for the president likely here. 99% here. palm beach county just about in. 59% to 49%. we assume the math is about done. start looking for other places. where can governor romney get some votes? you start tapping the red votes, and you start to see a lot of

100s. if you're in the romney war room, are you starting to ask where? any way to make up the gap? a lot of counties to do, but at the moment, when you look at florida and republicans, you are saying find me some votes, please. >> every one of the electoral votes very important. watching every single state right now. those states where we've not been able to make projections, but we are ready right now to make another major projection. new hampshire, we project the president of the united states will win the state of new hampshire. only four electoral votes, but they could be very, very important. right now, 22% of the vote in new hampshire is in. you see the president with a lead of 54% to 43%, a lead of 16,257 votes, so new hampshire, a fierce battle for new hampshire, mitt romney made a major push for new hampshire, so did the president. but the president, we project will carry new hampshire, let's take a look and see where we

stand now on the road to 270 with new hampshire in the president's column. look how close it is. mitt romney maintains a slight advantage, 158 for romney to 147 for the president of the united states. 270 needed to win. you see the yellow states, those are the states where we have not yet made projections out of the west coast. still voting in california, oregon, washington state, still voting in hawaii and in alaska, so we'll get more states coming in shortly, but new hampshire, an important state, john king and we watched it closely from the beginning, but it's going to be won by the president. >> and it's a disappointment for mitt romney. ended his campaign there. he ended his campaign. vacation home there. governor of massachusetts. this is a state he very much wanted. only four electoral votes. you say it's only four, why does it matter? governor romney needs to get some takeaways. he has one in inn. that's 11. that's not enough.

he needs to take florida, 29. north carolina, 15, virginia, 13. he might get those. virginia, not so sure. he looks in play. the question becomes how does he get to 270? let's go back to the other map. when you look at the states, the president of the united states at the moment, leading. leading, and leading in minnesota. made a plate play there. governor romney leading in wisconsin. only 13%. romney campaign keeps saying, remember the governor's race, we'll surprise you. the president with a lead here. let's watch the results. see if it's a republican surprise in wisconsin. that's just ten. sorry for touching that again. the question, can he figure this one out. about half of the vote in the state of ohio, we repeat this history a lot. history worth repeating. no republican has ever won without this state. ohio has picked the winner since 1964. wolf, you start look agent this and you say, again, where is it going to come from?

hamilton county, republicans need this to be red. close state wide elections. 18% in. we watch this one play out. the president winning in a place mitt romney needs to win. come to franklin county in the middle of the state, about half of the vote in. 62% to 36%. let's take a peek and see. compare that to 2008, 60%. president overperforming his percentages, a little below the numbers, but only half the vote. if the numbers double up, the president will overperform in franklin county as well. and here is the biggest chunk of votes up here, got a long way to go here. the president will add to his voettle total up here. governor romney performing well in the suburbs, needs to do this in the cleveland suburbs. a little narrow one. governor romney doing what he has to do up here and not what he has to do down here. you see the red in here, again, just like in florida, 100% of the vote in. only 4% here. you start going through counties. 32% here. the question is with the vote

out in the small, rural counties, you can make up what we know will happen here? the president leading in toledo, a lot more votes to be counting, and the president leading in wood county. a lot more votes to be counted. >> almost half the vote in. a long way to go in ohio. let's go to virginia, another key battleground state. romney folks desperately want to win. >> you see north carolina, virginia, mitt romney needs them. leading in both of them at the moment. the president has been inching back a little bit here, 51% to 47%. 64% of the vote. a couple of places we're watching. watching down here in virginia beach. governor romney, 56% there. 21% of the vote. go back in time, governor romney down there, outperforming john mccain, and roughly just a little bit behind george w. bush. a spot here. norfolk city. african-american vote center here. '08, the president got 7 in 10 votes here. you are looking at the potential for the president to get 30,000,

40,000 votes. let's come back to '12 and pull it out here. this is where we're looking closely. where most of the votes are in fairfax county, only 30% of the vote in there, for the president, will add to his hotels here. 75% in arlington county. so you see a lot of places up here, governor romney might be running a little better than john mccain in some of them, particularly prince william county. mitt romney leading by a couple of votes. barack obama won this county four years ago. not good enough at the moment. mitt romney, narrow lead at the moment. but i can find you plenty of places with potential votes for the president. >> 65% of the vote in. let's go to colorado, another key battleground state. >> blue at the moment. 51%. 51% of the vote here. if you look at this, quite interesting. very close election, let's go in and look. first, inner city denver. don't have a percentage. obviously not 0%. sometimes the feed doesn't give us our percentage. the president running up the

numbers. 74% in denver. a little below 2008 totals there. arapah arapahoe, a key county in the denver suburbs, 53% now, 56% four years ago. >> i want to go to boulder, colorado, right now. what's going on there, paul? >> wolf, i want to share what's happening in nearby adams county. very important to the whole component. the huge suburbs northwest of denver. the numbers right now show out of adams county, 59,315 for president obama and 44,810 for mitt romney. this is significant because romney hoped to make a big dent here in adams county. maybe not win the county, but at least hold obama to a draw there, so so far in adams county, the first dump of votes, obama doing very well. and also obama doing well with

75%. obama numbers out of boulder, 70%. he had 72% in 2008 and the republican strategy so chip away at some of these counties to win the overall state. >> what did you say the actual number was in adams county, paul? forgive me just one second. a piece of paper. don't you love the mix of old school fun and new technology. we have it 59,315 and 44,810 for romney. that's obama. 59,315 and 44,810. that's adams county. >> those are numbers we don't have yet reported officially there. a nice advantage for the president. >> that's old school, and the nuns are going to be mad at my messy handwriting. let's turn this off and look at adams county. numbers will disappear when i go

back in time. 55% of adams county. let's look at '08. 58%. the president underperforming a little bit. but adams county, look at colorado, blank this out, don't you love my writing? this is where colorado is won. the president 74% in denver. and adams county. obama field office a couple of months ago, they are working hard. romney working hard as well. jefferson county, president running -- where governor romney is running ahead of four years ago. jefferson county, governor romney doing better. what has to happen here, the president has to run up the margins and the president trying to shrink it in the suburbs. and the republicans are going to bring in a lot of votes. 65% to 35%. 81 out here, 61% of the vote in. the question, 52%, very close. we have to see the percentages here. the votes are in, much easier to make the assessment. >> let's go to iowa. another state where the polls are now closed.

not able to make a projection. 8% of vote is in. the president had 58% to 39%. >> the vote coming right here from polk county in des moines, traditionally more democratic. let's be careful about that. let's show you a map of iowa overtime. see what i'm talking about. des moines very democratic area. this area of the state tends to be democratic. this more republican. in a year when the republican carries the state it looks more like this. so at the moment this is a big turnout place. the president needs to turn out the votes here. a lot of democratic votes. looks like he's doing that job here. we'll watch this as it plays out this is where the romney campaign and evangelical christians say we'll surprise you on election day. we'll see if that holds up. the election polls suggest otherwise. when you come back to this map and start looking, the goal is 270. i know governor romney leading at the moment. you look at the west coast and look at the small size of the on

more prairie and mountain states, you're starting to have a hard time. a tighter, narrow window to say how does romney get to 270? he needs two of these, and this is the one i'm watching closely. if governor romney doesn't get the 29 -- >> you don't see how he can do it? >> i'm having a really hard time. 29 more for governor romney. now that pennsylvania is gone, michigan is gone, those were the back-pocket surprises he might pull on us. even if he holds onto wisconsin, that's just ten. and if he pulls off the miracle of minnesota, combined that would be 20. that's 29. that's 18 more. that's not enough. >> yeah, and pretty soon we'll get results from california, washington state, arkansas and those are pretty reliable democratic states in presidential contests. >> the map fills in. map filling in in a predictable way in the sense of red/blue america. what the president did four years ago, turn nine states, including colorado, virginia, north carolina, florida, nine bush states from 2004, the

president turned are red to blue. the big surprises were north carolina, virginia. we'll see what happens this year, indiana has gone back. look at the map at the moment. a lot of counting to do. but look at the mo map at the moment, obama's campaign easier path to 270 is still in play. >> let's go back, anderson. dana, more races unfolding in the united states senate. >> that's right. big projections. >> two big projections with big implications. sherrod brown the democratic incumbent in ohio, he will go on to win re-election. same goes for claire mccaskill. she is beating todd akin, who very famously talked about rape and abortion that had the entire republican party on him to get out of the race. didn't happen. claire mccaskill will win. this means it is now mathematically impossible for republicans to retake the senate, even if mitt romney wins the white house which would put

paul ryan in a position of being the tie tie-breaking vote. a lot of really depressed republicans. orrin hatch from utah is going to win re-election, fended off a primary earlier this year from within his own party. mathematically impossible, but the way it works, every single senator has a really big role, so all of the races are still very interesting, including virginia, again, look how close this is. republican, george allen is ahead right now with 65% reporting, ahead by about 33,000 votes -- actually fewer than 33,000 points. they hope republicans pick this up still. north dakota, same thing. open seat. we haven't talked about this. open seat in democratic hands. at this point, the republican rirepublican rick berg is ahead.

>> let's talk to james carville, have you been mumbling over and over, florida, florida, florida, florida, florida, and during a commercial break, you said this puppy is about done. what do you mean? >> john's reporting, which has been excellent. only one story right now. florida. florida goes, the election is over. if florida goes to romney, then there is one story, ohio. but let's not kid ourselves. >> the fact it's so close, and the areas not reported are traditionally democratic. >> it's not that close. it looks like based on john's reporting. i can say this, because i'm a contributor. not a cnn thing. based to this, it looks like it's awfully probable that president obama will take florida and win the election. >> boy, i hate it. i hate it when he's right. parts of florida out that are very democratic. tampa area, pinel as countas co. whatever picks that area wins

the race. on any path to the presidency, florida is essential for mitt romney. right now he is hanging on to a shot at winning this thing by his finger nails. >> where is your ar heart right now? >> right now, i think my silent majority i hoped would be there, is not only silent, but invisible. it's looking very tough right now for mitt romney. >> i think would you have to say it is -- if you look at the state of florida, that the president is winning with noncub an hispanics. if we look at a larger picture, we don't know the results in colorado. 13% of the votes in colorado 2008 were hispanic. you look at the exit polls this evening, by a 2-1 margin, people in this country believe there should be a path to citizenship, and the republican party, you

have to give george w. bush credit, he did battle with his own party and he lost. when you look back on this election, look back to the primaries and mitt romney moving to the right on immigration, i think it was a huge opportunity they missed. the president himself said it in an interview with "the des moines register." >> a lot of enthusiasm in camp obama right now. >> i think latino is an important part of this. two states, one is florida. but the other part of this is the midwest. this has been a swing area, and for the president, not only to hold the upper midwest, but he has got a significant lead in the exit polls. seems to be doing very well. that is -- intended to be his fire wahl as everybody said. but it's turning out to he about a huge strength for him. the industrial midwest. that's working white. that's the automobile bailout.

>> if this continues to hold up and president is re-elected, there is going to be huge post mortem amongst republicans. >> this isn't just a loss for mitt romney. again, a lot of states to vote. this is the repudiation of the republican party. democrats move to the middle, new democrats and transformed their party. republicans are still the party of no, we're not seen as having enough to solutions. a failing, tanking economy going over the cliff and the opposition party was not seen as an alternative. if that's what happened here, we have to go back to the drawing board. >> '80s, '70s, we were losing elections, and president clinton was able to shed a lot of the '60s, '70s, even the '80s baggage. somebody in the republican party has got to break out of what i call the tea party, talk radio, talking head bellicose in your

face, you're not like us. >> i think -- cautionary notice here. yes, barack obama is winning a lot of the swing states, but it remains true if you look at the overall national vote, it's quite close, and that's a message sent to the president as well. >> some people will blame romney, because his message was my business credentials, my business credentials. and you can make the case he didn't sell those well enough. exit polls, a parody with the president on who is best able to handle the economy. there will be some republicans who say it wasn't us, it was him. >> this election also tells you that the coalition of the ascendant that the obama campaign bet on, ben, you know about this. young people, professional -- >> and we've seen big turnout

among african-americans. >> this is not just about republican weakness, about democratic strength. we've been hearing about the enthusiasm gap. where is it? >> in some states, exceeding what it was in 2008 in some areas. >> ben jealous is a hero tonight. the youth vote, looks like a may be abig percentage than last night. this there is a new coalition that has a vision, a leader, named barack obama, and -- >> what should we look for in the next hour or two? james, are you looking at florida? >> florida, florida, florida, and florida. once i see florida, i'll look somewhere else. i really don't care about anything else. >> republicans will deconstruct this, a lot of money spent by republicans and democrats on this race. almost $90 million more on the republican side if you count the outside groups and hard dollars

raised. republicans will be wondering where that money went? >> let's go back to wolf blitzer. >> still a lot of yellow on the electoral map. states enclose too close to make projections. let's take a look at the votes in florida right now. 87% of the vote is in. the president maintains a slight advantage. 50% to 49%. almost 8 million votes counted already. 46,000-vote advantage. 46,518 vote advantage for the president. 13% of the vote is outstanding. 29 electoral votes at stake. in ohio, more than half of the vote is in. the president maintaining a slight advantage. changing right now, 50% to 48%, the president has an advantage of 85,000 votes, more than 3 million votes have already been counted, 18 electoral votes in ohio, where we're watching florida, ohio, we're watching

the battlegrounds, including colorado. how late will this night go before we can project a winner? stay with us, and don't miss a moment. [ woman ] it's 32 minutes to go time, and the candidate's speech is in pieces all over the district. the writer's desktop and the coordinator's phone are working on a joke with localolor. the secure cloud just received a revised intro from the strategist's tablet. and while i make my way into the venue, the candidate will be rehearsing off of his phone. [ candidate ] and thanks to every young face i see out there. [ woman ] his phone is one of his biggest supporters. [ female announcer ] with cisco at the center... working together has never worked so well. [ female announcer ] with cisco at the center...

one is for a clean, wedomestic energy future that puts us in control. our abundant natural gas is already saving us money, producing cleaner electricity, putting us to work here in america and supporting wind and solar. though all energy development comes with some risk, we're committed to safely and responsibly producing natural gas. it's not a dream. america's natural gas... putting us in control of our energy future, now. but when i was in an accident... i was worried the health care system spoke a language all its own with unitedhealthcare, i got help that fit my life. so i never missed a beat. that's health in numbers. unitedhealthcare. [ tylenol bottle ] me too! and nasal co [ tissue box ] he said nasal congestion. yeah...i heard him. [ female announcer ] tylenol® cold multi-symptom nighttime relieves nasal congestion. nyquil® cold and flu doesn't.

a watch party going on in times square at new york city. watching us, watching cnn, watching history unfold of the election, continuing. we're counting votes right now. nice to see all of the folks in new york city. a little chilly out there. they are watching us at times square. thanks very, very much. lots of watch parties going on around the united states, indeed, around the world. we'll show you more of them. let's update you on where we stand in this race for the

presidency. right now, remember, 270 votes, electoral college votes are needed to be president of the united states. mitt romney maintains a slight advantage. 158 electoral college votes. we project in his corner, compared to 147 for the president of the united states. but there are still several states out there on the west coast. we're getting ready to see what happens in california, oregon, washington state, iowa, excuse me, hawaii, and idaho, we're watching all of those states, they will be closing those states up at the top of the hour. let's take a look at key battleground states right now and where the contests stand. we'll start in missouri. we have not made a projection yet. romney ahead 57% to 41%. a significant lead of 153,000. ten electoral votes in most missouri. wisconsin, a quarter of the vote now in. mitt romney ahead 51% to 48%. an advantage of more than 20,000 votes, and paul ryan's home

state of wisconsin, which has ten electoral votes. in colorado, the president is ahead, more than half of the vote in. 51% to 47%. the president maintaining an advantage of about 50%. excuse me. 50,000 votes. now 51% to 47%. nine electoral votes. in new mexico, the president ahead there as well. 40% of the vote. 54-43% in new mexico. let's go to virginia, a key battleground state. 68% of the vote is in. mitt romney ahead, 51% to 48%. 72,000 vote advantage in virginia right now for mitt romney. that's a key state. north carolina right now, mitt romney, slightly ahead, 94% of the vote is in in north carolina. 4 million votes have been counted. romney is slightly ahead. ohio, very close, 50% for the president. 48% for mitt romney. 65,000 vote advantage for the president right now.

only 59% of the vote in. a lot of votes out there. in florida, 87% of the vote counted. look at this. 50% for the president, 49% for mitt romney. almost 8 million votes have been counted. 46,518 votes. 518 votes for the presidential advantage right now more votes n in iowa. ght now, quarr of the vote in in iowa. 59% for the president. 40% for mitt romney. got a significant lead of 77,956 votes. in arizona, mitt romney ahead. 47% of the vote is in. got a significant lead. 56% to 42%. a lead of 154,000 votes. that's significant there, and in montana, only 6% of the vote is in. 47% for the president. very early for those three electoral votes in montana. what is the popular vote?

the national vote show us right now? these are all the states where we have votes. so far, 39% of the national vote is in, mitt romney ahead nationally, 51% to 48%ory barack obama. a significant advantage right now 39% of the national vote in. we'll see what happens when california, some of the other states close up. ted rowlands joins us from wisconsin, milwaukee. what's happening? a quarter of vote in mitt romney ahead in paul ryan's home state. >> milwaukee county, wolf, where the vast majority of the folks live in terms of the highest population center in the state. this is where people from both sides are looking very closely. just getting some initial results from inside the county of milwaukee with old-school

board. hails county come in, two things good news for the republicans, voter turnout higher this time around than 2008 by a few hundred votes. and all of the votes to mitt romney. barack obama lost some votes in hales corner. we are waiting on some predominantly republican areas. if they can replicate what's happened in hales corner, that's what the romney folks want. we are getting real time results from the city of milwaukee. the mother lode, and good news for the president. voter turnout exceptional. 73% and carrying the vote with 32 precincts in, 87% of the vote. if milwaukee continues to come in at that clip, it's hard to imagine a scenario where the president would not win wisconsin. >> he's counting on wisconsin big time. even though it's the home state of the republican vice presidential rowlands for us t

republicans still might win. >> ted makes an important point. i'll show you wisconsin and move around the map. if you're in the romney war room right now, you are looking at the counties and calling chairmen, what do you got? where are the votes out there? what do we have. governor romney ahead, 51-48. ted says, this is the biggest population center. 17.5% of the state population. a huge democratic base. tiny percent of the vote in. an awful lot of votes that would not only erase, but obliterate the lead. and then dane county. another 8% of the population. thard of the vote in. the president doubles -- 30,000 vote lead. if that stays the same rvelg other precincts track. more votes for the president.

you come out here, a footnote for history. this is paul ryan's hometown in janesville, the president running more competitive down there. only 20 first of vote in. but the president is winning down there. republican vote center here, a smaller area, 1.7% of the population. you look where the people are and look at the map now and you see how the romney lead is slinking as votes come in. you have to look at the map, barring something huge out of milwaukee and think the later vote count will advantage the president. plus, you remember the history of the state with the deepest blue dna and i want to say, same things happening if you look closely at the map in virginia and north carolina. look here, mitt romney is ahead, but his lead shrinking. 69% of vote in. you ask yourself the question, what's out? look down here. and you move down here, one of the things that's out, norfolk city. 3% of the state wide population. the president will win big in

norfolk. african-american vote down there. one place the president will make up ground in the state of virginia. you ask yourself what else is out? you come up to the biggest population centers, 29% of the vote in fairfax county, virginia. governor romney doing better than john mccain. and that's a margin, the president will pick up votes there. most of the votes in here, and come up here, half of the votes in alexandria city, if he picks up another 10,000 votes there. when you look at this map, romney ahead, but where the votes are missing are largely democratic areas, and same thing when you come down here. this one very close right now. won't get as detailed as i just got. raleigh, in there finally, come across here, greensboro. start touching republican counties, 100%. democratic counties, still room for the president to catch up, even in north carolina. >> if he carried north carolina,

we'll see what happens this time. anderson. >> tracking every vote and every state that could decide the election, let's talk to david gergen, gloria borgeer, fascinating to look at the numbers. this may not go as late as we thought earlier. >> it may not go late. if we know florida -- let's say we get to the end of the county, 100%. i don't know what other ballots they have to county. if florida goes, i think this is basically over. i think the way we've been talking about this, interpreting through the lens of the elect n electoral college, battleground states, and obama, obama, obama you look at the national race, and look at the national vote, at the moment, mitt romney is ahead by a million and a half votes. now, obama may wind up with more national votes, but clearly we have a very divided country.

>> the significance of that, no matter who rules it affects how they rule. >> especially when we are head headed toward a fiscal cliff, 77% of the voters believe the economy is poor or not so good. 77%. so should the president win, he still has a country that's very unhappy, with the direction it's headed. they believe we're headed over a fiscal cliff, 47% believe that taxes should go up on people earning over 250,000 a year, and setting yourselves up for the same kind of arguments you had before the election. >> in the exit polls, if you ask people, should we raise taxes to pay for the deficit? by 63% to 33%, people say no,

the same are voting for obama are saying no. >> our correspondents are embedded with officials in colorado. they will have new numbers to show. and we're counting down. we have a live election party in los angeles for results from california. when will we know a winner? more results ahead.

or that printing in color had to cost a fortune. nobody said an all-in-one had to be bulky. or that you had to print from your desk. at least, nobody said it to us. introducing the business smart inkjet all-in-one series from brother. easy to use, it's the ultimate combination of speed, small size, and low-cost printing. live picture of new york's

empire state building. elucks results being displayed in the blue and red lights on top of the spires. romney 158 electoral votes. 147 for obama. the story, florida, florida, florida, as james carville said. we're watching results come in, and the state of ohio as well. jim acosta standing by. we have new information about what it's like behind the scenes of the romney campaign. jim what are you hearing? anderson, we've heard that the mood inside romney headquarters, war room where they are watching returns come in is "very tense," they are watching returns come in from across the country and seeing states they hoped to capture tonight slip out of their fingers, and that's somewhat the mood in this room. what's going on behind us, through the big jumbo screens, campaign showing different networks and their programming

as to what is being reported tonight across the country as returns come in, and each time, it flips to another network, there seems to be more bad news reported to the campaign, and it appears to be having an effect on the mood in the room. each time the channel flips, the mood gets a little more somber. >> we'll continue to check with you. wolf, let's go back. >> the state of florida, john king, obviously critical right now. 88% of the vote is in. 12% still outstanding. the president has a slight advantage. 59% to 44%. what is that? 16,000 votes? >> 16,000 votes and 12% of the vote still out. anybody's game. that's true. anybody's game. remember a while ago, we were asking are the votes still out? this is one of tthe counties st.

and romney winning big, but not a lot of numbers. 88% of the vote, might have a 44,000 vote advantage, but not enough to match this. come over here and look what else is out. orange county, orlando, and the presses running up big numbers, logic tells you, and it will add to the vote total there. the three most reliable democratic counties. palm beach almost all in, let's consider that one done. broward county, the president is outperforming the 23008 totals in broward county by a percentage. 84%, and miami-dade, 77%. the president your honor his 2008 performance. logic tells you he will add to his total here. you look state wide and in the romney war room, are you doing what i'm doing, calling into counties and saying, wait, do we have votes here? 93% sure, we might get some

votes here. a little bit of math for governor romney here. 100%, 100%, 100%, 100%, you get the point. come out to the full state wide and look at place where is there are still votes to be counted, democrat vote in here, 100%, 100%, 100%, when you come down here where people live, still votes to be counted. still some votes to be counted, a few here, the president winning, in significant population centers with votes still out, you find the president running up big numbers. when you look at the map right now, you have to count the votes. i'm having a hard time finding places. >> a nice light advantage. let's go to ohio right now. that's obviously a key battleground state. >> at the moment, still blue. romney needs that, needs that more than those two. can't win with more than those two. and, again, incredibly close,

wow. >> 50% to 48%. 64% of the vote in ohio has been counted, and he's up by about 90,000 votes right now. >> and up about 90,000 votes. largest county in the state, cleveland area. bad news for the romney campaign. 30% of the vote in up here. 70-30, you know when the rest of the vote comes in, this is the president's breadbasket right here. one of the things you have to say, not having a primary challenge, one of the things did i earlier, travel around to some of the areas, and obama campaign going into the african-american community, saying he has your back and you have to have his in november. they got names, phone numbers and proven they are turning out the vote in places where you thought in an off year, tough economy, maybe they wouldn't vote. cuyohoga county, you have to tip your hat. akron, 66%. let's take a peek. 58% in 2008. 66% now. across the nosh industrial part here, the turnout operation,

seems to be working two more words. auto bailout. >> i want to stay in ohio. erin burnett has a front-row seat in columbus, the state capital. erin. >> that's right, and we've been getting updates from the secretary of state, john husted. you are talking about the north where the president needs to increase his margin. i want to go to the south. let's go to don lemon at the board of elections in cincinnati. don. >> 63-35 in hamilton county, a county, erin, that usually goes republican, except in 2008. a correction, 53-46. 53-46. this county usually goes republican, except for 2008 this could be a bellwether what's to come. all of results coming in, and everyone is watching from really around the world. from the bbc, all over. people coming in, those results are going up on the screen. back to the left, you can see,

this is really the war room. everything coming in, crunching numbers in. going to the cards, and they have 25 trucks that have to come in and out. about five trucks have come in. here is an interesting thing what what i'm being told. many people underestimated the obama ground game here, because they are believing that's where obama is winning in the bigger counties, montgomery county, franklin county, cuyohoga county, where martin savidge in. they believe he built up such a stallworth it will be hard to fight against that. a lot of numbers to come in. they believe because of the sheer size of the counties it will be tough to fight against that. right now, the president leading, but still, still all of the numbers not in, erin. >> all right. don, thank you very much. we heard a lot about. the obama campaign says we have a better ground game. the jury is still out, but from the numbers we have so far, it

seems to be the case. they have the better ground game. back to up. >> hamilton county, really important, where naens is, only 21% of the vote officially insofar. the president, 55% to 45%. >> this is the home of rob portman. a lot of people in ohio thought he should have been the vice presidential nominee. let's go back in time to 2008, 53% to 48%. the president will match totals from four years ago. why is that significant? to win ohio in a statewide election, here is the last time george w. bush won it, hamilton county red. president obama matching his performance in the counties where he needs to. >> stand by. i want everyone to stand by. two projections to make, right now. first minnesota. ten electoral votes. the president of the united states will carry the state of minnesota we project.

minnesota goes for president obama. arizona, winner will be mitt romney, 11 electoral votes in arizona. we project arizona going for mitt romney, so where does that stand? leave us in the race to 270 electoral votes needed to be elected president. right now, mitt romney has 169. barack obama, 157. a lot of yellow states still out there those yellow states are states we have not been able to make projections. we're getting ready for more projections, though, at the top of the hour. anderson. >> watching a slew of battleground states too close to call. and polls close soon on the west coast. biggest electoral prize of the night, california, on the line. a lot of drama. we'll take you to the behind the scenes action ahead.

when you take a closer look... ...at the best schools in the world... ...you see they all have something very interesting in common. they have teachers... ...with a deeper knowledge of their subjects. as a result, their students achieve at a higher level. let's develop more stars in education. let's invest in our teachers... ...so they can inspire our students. let's solve this. dad vo: ok, time for bed, kiddo. lights out. ♪ (sirens)

(train horn) ♪ vo: wherever our trains go, the economy comes to life. norfolk southern. one line, infinite possibilities. perform, compete and grow. and people are driving this change. that's the power of human resources. the society... for human resource management and its members know... how to harness that power, because we help develop it. from the next economy, to the next generation, we help get... the most out of business, by getting the best out of people.

shrm. leading people, leading organizations.

you can gbet there is plent of tension at the headquarters for each party as we get into election night in america. we welcome viewers in the united states and around the world. i'm wolf blitzer. we're counting down to zero hour of presidential election nights.

will we be able to project a winner any time soon? california, the biggest electoral prize of the night, polls about to close, as well as hawaii, idaho, oregon, and washington state. 82 electoral votes, is enough to put one candidate over the winning total of 270. let's check in with jessica yellin at obama head quarters in chicago, and candy crowley at romney headquarters in boston. >> they are increasingly optimistic at the obama headquarters. president obama left his house where he had dinner with mrs. obama and the girls, and the whole family brought to the fairmont hotel to watch results with family and friends and then he has one more movement over here later tonight. i will tell you one thing i am hearing from some of the senior aides, they keep pointing out, when we report our popular votes totals, it doesn't include one

of the most pop you husbaulous the nation, california. >> they should watch us more carefully. i pointed out california, washington state, oregon, not closed yet. and those are big states,est peshlgly california. what's going on in boston, candy? >> well, i have to tell you, the -- prior to what we're watching right now, which is really the family story of the romneys, very dark and quiet in here for this crowd. right before that, they watched scott brown, republican senator from massachusetts concede. a very subdued crowd here. in the past hour or so, not getting return phone calls or messages from the romney campaign. look, they are looking at the numbers, trying to figure out how to make the math work. i'm sure it's turned from tense

to really tense, because this is the pathway to the presidency shrinking, you can teal it in the room. they are watching returns come in. at this point, they are like others waiting. >> and the wait continues. guys, thanks very much. we'll get back to you. anderson, closer and closer to 11:00 p.m. on the east coast. 8:00 p.m. on the west coast. you remember, four years ago, exactly 11:00 p.m. on the east coast, we projected that barack obama will win the presidency. >> after all the ads and the money spent, we are getting close to finally having an answer about who will be the next president of the united states. people in boston have their eyes glued to the vote tallies. live at a watch party at mitt romney's home city, and obama's hometown of chicago. we're also in new york city's times square. something special going on at

the empire state building. look at this. they turned the masts on the top of the building red and blue to reflect the electoral votes won by obama and romney. and las vegas and los angeles, polls about to close in california. and our team is poring over results as we get them. >> sorry to have my back to you. i'm going through the map, trying to search for votes. battleground florida, fascinating at the moment. 90% of the vote in in florida. why does it seem every four years, we spend a lot of time counting votes in florida? one of the most evenly divided states in an evenly divided country. 50% to 4 9%. can you find the republican votes to bring this state back to romney? these are votes he needs to win. some states you can win, some states you can lose. in the romney scenario, he has to win this. loo looking and looking.

only 93% of the votes in some of the largest counties. 96% in broward county. what's left, likely to go to the president. miami-dade, probably more for the president here. if you are in the romney war room looking at this, are you getting more than a little nervous. let me pop up the map, move up the coast. north carolina, a state romney also has to win. i can find you some places where there are democratic votes out. this one, very close. advantage romney at the moment. it appears, if i had to make a bet, that one will hold. i'm not so sure. we watch governor romney leading. 50% to 49%. just like florida, when we search the map, looking for places where the democratic vote is still out, you find it in places like norfolk don't here, and you find it in places up here. the fast-growing northern virginia suburbs, only 60%